Based on characters created by Erle Stanley Gardner
and on the TV series produced by Dean Hargrove and Fred Silverman
Roses. Red, beautiful roses. The color of the flowers perfectly matched the color of Helen Carmichael's cheeks.
Helen accepted the bouquet that had been left for her at the train station in Illinois with glee. She smiled as she carried the flowers through the fresh air outside of the station, pacing alongside the waiting train. Still blushing, her cheeks went well with the tight red sweater she was wearing, but only served to create a deep contrast between her red cheeks and her long, dark brown hair.
"I told you he loves me," said Helen, smiling at her two friends and traveling companions, Kay and Natalie. Kay Silvers was a skinny young woman with fair skin and black hair. Natalie Culp was a shockingly beautiful young woman with tan skin and blonde hair. They both looked at Helen with disdain.
"Don't get so excited," said Kay. "He's never had a girlfriend he
didn't buy a dozen roses for."
"But they're beautiful!" gushed Helen.
"Of course they are," said Kay. "I'm not saying they aren't. I'm just saying don't get so excited over them. He's not really giving you any special treatment he hasn't given each one of his ex's."
"She's right," said Natalie. "They're really beautiful. And they're really expensive. But Bill Anders can certainly afford them."
"What do you want me to do with them?" asked Helen. "Just throw them
away?"
"Don't throw them away," said Kay. "Keep them. They'll keep you
company on the trip."
"Just enjoy the gifts while you get them," said Natalie. "Don't think they'll last forever."
Helen hugged the bouquet of roses against her ample breasts.
"But I want them to," she said. "I really want this to last forever."
Kay and Natalie both rolled their eyes at their friend.
"Helen," said Natalie. "I think you're forgetting that I used to go out with Bill Anders. He seems really great at first. But trust me, in the end he turns out to be a jerk."
"But I thought you said you were O.K. with my seeing Bill," whined Helen.
"No," insisted Natalie. "I was against you dating him from the very beginning. I just said that if you did want to keep seeing him, I wouldn't hold it against you."
Helen just kept smiling and admiring the roses.
"You girls are both wrong about Bill," she insisted. "He's changed."
"Think that if you want," said Kay. "Just be careful. Bill Anders breaks women's hearts. It's his hobby. And once he breaks a woman's heart, that woman always has a hard time getting over it. He already had to put a restraining order out on one of his ex-girlfriends."
"I just don't want to see you get hurt," insisted Natalie. "When he breaks up with you, which he will, I don't want you to have a hard time getting over him."
Helen took a deep breath to inhale the aroma of the flowers.
"Don't worry," she said softly. "I won't have any trouble getting over him."
Perry Mason peered over the top of his newspaper at the three girls. He found the news much less interesting than the thousands of examples of human nature at its deepest complexities all around him. The three women were a prime example. Mason had seen close-knit women like them before. They were usually as thick as any band of thieves. They were the kind of women that might do anything for each other. Even cover up a murder.
Mason laughed at the absurdity of the notion. The three women were bound from New York to California, just as he was. Helen, Kay, and Natalie were all aspiring models, from what Mason could gather, who had just been meeting with a big agent in New York. Whether or not the agent had approved of them, Mason could only guess. Mason only knew that if he was the agent, he would have approved of them.
Anyway, their meeting seemed like it would have been much more interesting than his had been. A legal convention in New York. Guest speakers and luncheons. And lawyers. Lots and lots of lawyers. Mason enjoyed the company of his colleagues, but he felt happy to be among people of a wide variety of careers once again. Unfortunately, Mason's boredom did not end with the convention. The train ride back to California was for the most part uneventful and almost mind numbing.
Oh, well. There were the girls. The three seemed to be arguing over a bouquet of flowers the brunette had received. Mason had a feeling they would at least be interesting to travel with. Then, in the pit of his stomach, Mason had a feeling this train ride might become some how eventful yet.
He looked again at the bouquet of flowers. Interesting.
> > > > > >
A very similar bouquet of flowers sat on the dresser next to the bed in Rowena Taylor's hotel room. The roses swayed back and forth from the activity nearby.
The activity ceased to the jaunting sound of a ringing telephone. A plump female hand reached up and lifted the receiver.
"It's for you, lover."
Bill Anders pushed away the blankets with a groan. He steadied his breathing as he snatched the phone from Rowena.
Bill Anders was definitely handsome. With broad shoulders and a muscular build, it wasn't difficult to recognize the figure of a former high school and perhaps college athlete. Instead it was difficult to recognize the look of total dishonesty in his face. It had to be, or he would never have been able to get this far with this many different women.
"Hello?" said Anders into the telephone, almost failing to hide his irritation.
"I loved the flowers, Bill."
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I thought you would." The pleasantly plump woman beside him grabbed onto his shoulder, forcing Anders to look into her eyes. She wasn't even trying to hide her irritation.
"Bill? Is everything all right?" said Helen's voice over the phone.
"Everything's perfect," said Bill, hiding any emotion in his voice.
"I miss you," said Helen.
"Yeah. Me, too," replied Bill.
"Who is it?" asked Rowena. The look of intensity in Bill's eyes quieted her.
"I can't wait to see you again," said Helen.
"I know," said Bill. "I feel the same way. Where are you now?"
"Illinois," said Helen. "I should be in Chicago tomorrow night. We can meet there."
"Do we have to?" asked Bill. "Business is finished here, and you'll see me back in California..."
"I can't wait that long," whined Helen. "I really miss you."
"All right, dear," said Bill. "Whatever you want."
"Who is it?" hissed Rowena again, more impatient than before.
"Shut up!" Bill hissed back, carefully placing his hand over the receiver.
"At Harris's," said Helen. "That's your favorite Chicago steak house, isn't it? You can buy me dinner there. I'll meet you around 8:00."
"Sounds perfect," said Bill.
"Bill Anders, I love you," said Helen.
"I love you, too," said Bill. "I'll see you soon, dear."
Bill hung up.
"Who was that?" Rowena asked once again.
"Just a business associate," said Bill. He could tell from the look in Rowena's eyes that she didn't believe him. Bill sighed. "To tell you the truth, it was another woman."
Rowena laughed, obviously still not believing him.
Bill pressed his lips against Rowena's and pressed her back down into the bed.
> > > > > >
Helen Carmichael was shaking with excitement as she prepared for her date with Bill Anders. It had been over a week since the last time she had seen her beau, and she was anxious to spend a romantic evening with him.
Kay Silvers and Natalie Culp still tried to voice their disapproval of Anders, but being close friends to Helen, they did not hesitate to help her choose the make-up and hair appropriate for her date.
It was 9:30 when Helen made it to the entrance of Harris's, but she felt certain her date wouldn't mind. She would just blush and apologize and...
Helen froze in the doorway when she spotted Bill. He was sitting at the bar, necking with a blonde who could not have been a day over 18 years old.
> > > > > >
Bill Anders had arrived at exactly 9:00. If anything, he expected Helen to be early. He should have known better. He then expected her to be up to fifteen minutes late. But as he sat there waiting, Bill began to wonder if Helen was worth waiting for. She was very attractive. She was going to be a model, after all. And she was someone that people enjoyed being around. But she wanted a serious relationship. Commitment. That was the one thing that Bill Anders was ready to avoid at any cost.
Then temptation appeared in the form of a young blonde at the bar. Bill couldn't resist flirting. After a few minutes of simply exchanging seductive glances, Bill took a seat next to the blonde and began to seriously turn on the charm. He found her interesting. And when he began to believe Helen was simply not going to show, he decided the evening would not have to be a total loss.
Bill and the blonde were still kissing when he spotted Helen, wearing a ruby red smile and her favorite black cocktail dress. Bill quickly untangled himself and rose to explain himself to Helen. She wouldn't wait for an explanation. She just ran as fast as her feet would carry her out of the steak house, letting the wind blow the door closed with a SLAM behind her.
> > > > > >
Perry Mason was trying to focus on the Agatha Christie novel before him, but the repetitive clanking and clacking of the railroad train around him, combined with his boredom over the long journey, was starting to loll him to sleep. Mason yawned and rested his head on the wall behind him. He then realized he could hear sounds coming through it.
There was first the sound of loud, uncontrollable sobs. Then he heard a familiar voice.
"There are a few simple ways to get revenge."
"Like what?"
"Poison his goldfish."
Laughter was heard over the tears. He recognized the first voice as the tanned blonde he had seen the other day.
"A little bit of cyanide would do the trick," said another voice. "Or maybe you can just take that stupid pet and flush it down the toilet." That was the voice of the black-haired girl. Mason was becoming so engrossed with the conversation, he completely forgot that he was eavesdropping.
"Let's leave the goldfish out of this," said the blonde's voice. "The fish didn't do anything wrong."
The sobbing quieted, but it still had not completely stopped.
"We warned you, Helen," came another voice, this one a voice that Mason had never heard before. "This is what Bill Anders does to women. We just didn't want to see you hurt like this."
"Are you sure it was really Bill?"
"Of course it was," said Helen. "I'd know him anywhere."
"Who was the girl?"
"Some young high school girl," said Helen. "I'd never seen her before. I'm not sure Bill ever did, either."
"What exactly were they doing?"
"They were making out," said Helen. "Making out like lovesick teenagers."
"You could glue his lips shut," said the black-haired girl.
"How could she do that?" said the other girl.
"Fix him a bowl of chowder or a sandwich or something like that," said the black-haired girl. "I'm sure that he'd eat it. And just add plenty of super glue to it."
"Or shred his Barry Manilou collection," suggested the tanned blonde.
"Or steal his left shoe and replace it with a fuzzy bunny slipper," suggested the other woman.
There was laughter. The sobbing stopped, but it was replaced with a voice dripping with loathing and determination.
"None of that's good enough," said the voice. "He has to die. I'm going to kill him. The Saturday night I get back, he's going to be all alone at his house. His maid doesn't work Saturday nights. He gave me a key to his front door. I can get in while he's still fast asleep. I'll use that letter opener I got him. The jeweled letter opener that I bought him for his birthday. I don't know why I ever bought him that thing. I'll use it. It will be so ironic. I'll take that stupid letter opener, and I'll come in while he's sleeping, and I'll shove it through his heart. Right through his heart. He'll pay for what he did to me. I swear, I'm going to kill him. He has to die."
Mason shuddered at the determination in Helen's voice. He suddenly snapped back to reality. Trying to shake himself out of the mood Helen's ominous voice had created, he shrugged off the conversation he had overheard and let tiredness overcome him.
As Perry Mason pulled down his bunk to climb into bed, he heard Helen Carmichael's voice repeat, "He has to die."